This invention relates to a machine for harvesting crop material having rotatable rolls which can contact the crop material, e.g. to a baling machine, for forming cylindrical bales of crop material, having a main frame, rotatable transverse rolls mounted thereon and belts trained over the rolls to provide a baling chamber for the crop material. And more specifically, this invention relates to devices for preventing material from wrapping about such rotatable rolls.
Machines, towed by a tractor, for forming large cylindrical bales of hay (so called "round" balers) are well-known. As the machine advances, the crop is removed from a windrow by a pickup mechanism and delivered rearwardly to a baling chamber where it is rolled into a bale between sets of oppositely moving belts, the growing bale rotating about a horizontal axis and the baling chamber expanding with the bale. The belts are trained over rolls which extend laterally of the machine and most of which are journalled at either end in the sides of the machine.
During baling, stray crop can become entrapped in the region between the sides of the baler, the outermost belts and the rolls, whereupon the crop tends to wrap around the roll ends which can be detrimental to belt tracking on the rolls. The crop can also find its way into the bearings of the rolls and foul them.
In our co-pending European patent application No. 82106409 we have described and claimed a baling machine which is designed to obviate the wrapping of crop along the length of a roll. In one arrangement described, an additional roll is provided over which the belts are alternately trained to give a staggered array with openings between the belts enabling stray crop to escape.
The present invention reduces the problem of crop wrapping around rolls and is particularly useful when used to protect the ends of the rolls. It can be employed in conjunction with the invention of EP No. 82106409 or independently.